Ben Habib: Reform should renew its vows to the TUV and get squarely behind unionism and Northern Ireland
Readers of the News Letter may recall my repeatedly making the case for a pan-UK approach to political unionism. The ONLY way to save the union was and is to act across the Union.
There is an obvious cognitive dissonance in unionists isolating themselves.
I relentlessly pitched this notion to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson when he was leader of the DUP. As deputy leader of Reform UK, I pleaded with him to drop the self-harming love of the Tories and ally with us. To no avail.
After the DUP turned coat to becoming Irish Sea border deniers and implementers, Jim Allister and I spearheaded the forging of a pan-UK alliance between his TUV and my Reform.
March 16 2024 was a proud day for us. Richard Tice, then leader of Reform, and I flew to Belfast to attend the TUV conference and reveal our joint memorandum of understanding.
We declared our collective opposition to the Irish Sea border and pledged to defeat it. We hoped it would be the beginning of the end of the partitioning of the United Kingdom. No genuine Brexiteer could or would tolerate the Irish Sea border.
To be a Brexiteer means to believe in the constitutional, political, democratic and economic unit that is the United Kingdom.
The referendum ballot paper referred to the United Kingdom, not Great Britain, leaving the EU.
The 2019 general election was won by the Tories promising the country would leave the EU as one United Kingdom. There is no consent from the British people to have left Northern Ireland behind.
Brexit equals the entire United Kingdom leaving the EU. We do not have Brexit.
Moreover, those of us who campaigned for Brexit are obliged to fight the Irish Sea border until it is defeated and Brexit delivered. Not to do so would be a fundamental breach the trust put in us by those who voted to leave and a dereliction of duty to the country.
The bigger the role we played in the campaign, the bigger our obligation to deliver Brexit and save Northern Ireland. There can be no individual with a greater obligation than Nigel Farage.
But is he interested? In September 2023, he told the Irish Times that a united Ireland was inevitable, he got on well with Mary Lou McDonald (who is still unapologetic about the IRA) and had fun with Leo Varadkar (the man who weaponised the Irish border issue).
There is absolutely no certainty of a united Ireland. If the Irish Sea border is removed, our Union would be saved. It is down to people like Nigel and me to ensure it is.
When I joined Reform in March 2023, I insisted that Richard Tice acknowledge Brexit had not been done and promise that we would fight on for it and the Union. Our alliance with the TUV flowed from that promise.
Since Nigel replaced Richard as leader of Reform, our wonderful alliance seems to have been ended.
The first sign of this was when he endorsed Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson in the general election, even though our allies in the TUV, including Jim Allister, stood against them.
Thankfully, Jim beat Ian and was returned to Parliament. The country is all the richer for his presence in the Chamber.
Now it seems Reform has rejected the alliance. There is no common cause made between its MPs and Jim, who was not invited to the Reform conference.
Nigel is silent about the Union, the Irish Sea border and its cause, the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Reform had a terrific opportunity in Parliament to lead on Brexit and the Union. In so doing, it would have forced other Brexit/unionist MPs into lockstep behind it.
This would have magnified Reform’s own influence from five to 12 MPs. But there seems no appetite for this political advantage.
All the while Starmer is taking the UK closer to the EU. What little Brexit we have will be reversed.
There is also a crucial reason which goes to the heart of Reform, why it must fight against the Irish Sea border. As long as the protocol and our new treaties with the EU exist, very few of the policies espoused by Reform can be delivered. To leave the European Convention on Human Rights, secure our borders, ditch net zero, build our defences, buy British first, deregulate our economy, cut taxes, reclaim our fishing waters and much else besides ALL require the termination of the Irish Sea border.
Even if Nigel only feels for GB, he is obliged as leader of Reform to campaign against the Irish Sea border.
Reform should renew its vows to the TUV and get squarely behind unionism and Northern Ireland.
My message to Nigel: the fight for Brexit was never won. No nation can be sovereign while part of it is governed by a foreign power.
Ben Habib is a former Brexit Party MEP and now member of Reform UK